Loeb Music Library

Mozart Resources at Harvard University

Harvard University libraries hold a rich collection of first and early editions and manuscript copies of the musical works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The purpose of this Web site is both to alert Mozart scholars to these significant resources and also to gather together in one list items housed in several locations within the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library and the Houghton Library. While these items are cataloged in HOLLIS this list offers the opportunity to identify all the primary sources for a given work held at Harvard without having to first sort through the many study editions which also appear in the HOLLIS indexes. We continue to augment this premier collection with new acquistions from the antiquarian market.

The Biblioteca Mozartiana Eric Offenbacher (BMEO) forms the nucleus of the Music Library's Mozart collections. The BMEO was established at Harvard University in 1987 to serve as an incentive for the development of Harvard as a center of Mozart research. The collection was assembled by Dr. Eric Offenbacher over a period of nearly 40 years. It includes two Mozart autograph manuscripts and an autograph letter by his son Karl (all held at Houghton Library), and close to 100 first editions of Mozart's instrumental music and operas, almost all of them printed before 1800. The BMEO also contains rare early biographical works and over 400 out-of-print publications about Mozart and his family. Finding aids for the remainder of the BMEO are available on the Loeb Music Library Web site (Biblioteca Mozartiana Eric Offenbacher (BMEO) Books; Biblioteca Mozartiana Eric Offenbacher (BMEO) Facsimiles and Textbooks (Libretti))

In addition, Offenbacher donated his personal collection of Mozart research materials (Research Materials of the BMEO) to the Loeb Music Library in 2000. The University of Washington Music Library's Offenbacher Mozart Collection holds his recordings, including over 1500 78s and LPs of Mozart operatic arias and ensembles, concert arias, lieder, and sacred music.

The BMEO has served as a catalyst for further collecting of Mozart materials. A generous gift from Oscar Schafer has enabled the continued growth of our collection over the years. Other special collections at Harvard that contain early Mozart editions include the Packard Humanities Institute Music Collection (on loan to the Loeb Music Library) and The Haverlin Collection, Broadcast Music, Inc., in the Houghton Library.

The Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library holds an extensive collection of primary Mozart sources on microform, including numerous Mozart autograph manuscripts. Also included are a number of items from the BMEO. All microforms are located within the Isham Memorial Library. The finding aid to the Mozart Resources on Microform is organized alphabetically by uniform title.

How to use the finding aid

The list is sorted by musical genre, listed below. Within each genre category works are in alphabetical order by title, then by date of publication. Each entry includes the following information:

Bibliographic citation: A standard bibliographic entry is included for each item.

Call number: The call number is listed in boldface at the end of the bibliographic citation. Items housed in the Loeb Music Library will carry headings for Loeb Music, Isham Library, or Merritt Room. Items from the BMEO are identified by 'BMEO' following the call number. Items from the Packard Humanities collection similarly by 'PHI'. Houghton Library items carry a Houghton heading in their call numbers.

Annotations: These include additional descriptive information as well as comments about an item's condition, materials laid into a volume, inscriptions, etc. Dr. Eric Offenbacher annotated the entries from the BMEO collection.